All posts in connect the dots

It’s a question we regularly hear. Maybe not as often as when we were children and our parents would want to know why we were covered in mud or why the bed sheets were draped across chairs or why we were sniggering conspiratorially when they walked into the room.

But there is one place where we don’t hear it enough or ask it enough – and it’s where we should be asking it – in our business. Continue reading →

Remember doing the dot-to-dots as a kid? You had a page of dots that made no sense but by drawing a connecting line according to the numbered sequence, suddenly you had picture that made sense.

Connect the dots in your business and you will know what you need to do and why, and you will be in far more control.

Unfortunately, too many business owners leap around trying different tactics in order to achieve their results. If the dots aren’t connected there is no control and the picture makes no sense. Continue reading →

A big problem can cripple a business. It can stop it from ever getting to where you want it to be and can eventually bring it down. The worst thing you can do is hesitate and procrastinate and sit on the thing because you don’t know how to solve it.

Just because you’re struggling to find a working solution doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Almost certainly, there will be a solution because I very much doubt that your problem is a first and that someone, somewhere hasn’t already solved it – it’s just a matter of finding it.

As we approach the end of another year that has flown by our thoughts inexorably drift to next year and if our business will be better than it has been this year. We ask questions like…what worked this year? What didn’t? What caused me to lose sleep? What caused most stress? Did I achieve what I wanted and if I didn’t what did I miss and why? What will next year be like?

And when you do think about next year you naturally think about the things you can do to make it better. What can I do to…

Attract more customers?

Attract fewer higher paying customers?

Hold on to them?

Have less problems land on my desk?

Increase revenue and profit?

We all do this…its human nature to think about how to solve something with actions – do this and that will be better. But whatever these things are they are unlikely to work because it’s not the place to start… Continue reading →

I’m sure you’ve received messages about making 2014 better than 2013 and about setting measurable goals and so on. This is easy to say and not very easy to do. If you’re struggling and want to make 2014 different to previous years here’s 3 things you can do.

First, read or re-read my post that I sent you back in early November last year. If during the break and the last two weeks you’ve struggled to plan your year ahead then this post contains some links to a large amount of pretty solid advice and guidance. In my humble opinion, it’s well worth taking an hour or so out to go through (again, or for the first time if you didn’t see it because you were too busy sprinting to year-end or if you’re new to my blog) and digest.

The other reason for doing this is that it means stepping out of your business so that you can think about it at a higher level. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I view ‘thinking’ about your business as one of the most important things you can do and which most do too little of. Type ‘Thinking’ into the search box at the top right of this post and you’ll see a number of posts on this, the first one dates back in July 2011, around the time I started this blog.

Which brings me to the second thing you should do to help you make this year different and better. Hover a few hundred feet above your business and look down on it.

Look at how your business flows:

How you attract and retain your ideal customers;

How you convert prospects into new customers;

The products and services you create and deliver that is worth more to your customers than the amount you charge them (the value you deliver);

The resource, capabilities and leadership qualities needed to do all this;

The systems and processes needed to keep all running smoothly so you can focus on value and revenue generation.

With this flow in mind, where are the bottlenecks? What’s holding back the flow of your business and why? What’s the biggest constriction to the smooth flowing of your business? What’s the biggest thing that needs to work but isn’t? If you got this bottleneck working what difference would it make to your business?

I take clients through this process and we identify the biggest obstacle to their business flow. When I ask the last question, the answer I almost always get is, “It would make a huge difference.”

Unless you have infinite time and resource, this would be a good place to start.

And the third thing you can do? Identify where your expertise does not lie and get help. It will be quicker, more cost effective and you will have better results than if you try and work out how to do everything yourself.

If you need help making the big difference to you business then contact me and see if I can help.

One month down, 11 to go. How’s it going so far? Are you on course to meet your goals or is it too early to say?

If you’re not on course, or worse don’t know, then re-check that you have the right mechanisms in place to give you the information you need, when you need it.

Veering off course can happen quickly and if January hasn’t started as planned and considering how quickly it’s come and gone, where exactly are you and where could you end up in a few short weeks.

Imagine your goals are on the other side of a stream or small river in a specific spot on the bank. Getting to the other side isn’t a problem because the river is full of flat, secure stepping stones which are close together so you can take small, safe steps.

You need to pick your path, as the stones are everywhere, and in a straight line you could get across in about 40 steps. Remember, your goals occupy only one spot on the river bank, so you need to get to the other side at exactly the right spot.

What’s your tactic? Well, you might look up to check after each step you take or you might take a few steps then look up and correct your course if necessary. Either way, you’re unlikely to take many steps without stopping to check.

Now, imagine, you are blindfolded and can lift the blindfold and check your position only after you have stepped over say half-a-dozen stones. It is likely that you will be off course somewhat but at least you can correct that course each time you look.

Now imagine that someone else, who cannot see the other side, is telling you where to step. It is highly likely that this time, when you check, you will be even further off course. So, you inform the person of where you are so that corrections can be made and then take instructions once more.

Eventually you’ll get to the other side but will you be at the right spot and how much longer has it taken when blindfolded or taking instructions from another? If your goals are annual and each stone represents say, a week, you must get to the other side in under 52 steps…would you even have made it?

Clearly the most efficient and effective method is to not be blindfolded and to look up and check your progress every step or two. If each stone represents a week in your business then clearly you need up-to-date progress information, probably in the form of summary reports and short focused team meetings.

To stay on course, you need to check your heading regularly and receive the information you need to be able to correct your course if necessary.

If that decision is based on the information being provided by others in your company then make sure you have a robust system that collects and delivers that information up the chain, to you at the helm.

We’re half-way through the year already (wow… where has the time gone) and at a major milestone. Have you taken time out to assess if you’re on course to meet your annual goals?

If you are on course, do you know why? It’s just as important to know that you are on course for the right reasons; according to your strategy and in line with your business plan rather than through a stroke of luck because of say an unexpected piece of business.

If you are not on course, again, do you know why? If you do, then do you know what you need to do about it? If you don’t know then how will you get back on track?

Finally, if you don’t know whether you are on course or not then, even if you are, you don’t have the processes in place to monitor and your business could be anywhere.

A long-haul flight spends most of its time off course and continuously makes small corrections which none of the passengers notice. Do the same in your business; monitor weekly and make small corrections if necessary. Spend at least half a day every month to check progress and at least a day every quarter to review all areas of your business. Establish the processes and the mindset to do this and you’ll stay on course. If you don’t do this then all your planning and goal setting could well have been a waste of time.

As for me, well, I’m four weeks behind my original annual strategy plan and have adapted it to achieve my key goals. I know why this has happened and in case you’re interested, it’s because two unplanned for events have happened this year so far….I fell in love and we each moved to another part of the country to be together in our new home. I confess; my focus drifted a little.

These processes for staying on course are vital. If you don’t have them in place then you can’t know if you’ll meet your goals until it’s too late to do anything about it. Put them in place and if you need help then contact me .

Last week I was speaking with a business owner who may do some work on my house. On asking what I did as a strategy consultant, he responded that he really needed to step back and develop a strategy for his business. He then stopped, and for the briefest of moments he stepped back from his business and even had a wistful smile on his face as he appeared to imagine doing just that. He then quickly snapped out of it and got back to figuring out the work involved.

His family-run business that had been around for years isn’t struggling but actually doing very well. His challenge is actually how to take it to the next level.

I agreed that with the demands from your people and from customers, stepping back can be the hardest of things to do but that if he didn’t then sooner or later he would likely veer off course and his business suffer. I suggested that when he was back in his office he look at his calendar or diary and set aside a day to step back and think about his business.

I said he shouldn’t allow any appointments or the demands of others to take that day away from him. I suggested he go away from his business, even if it’s the local coffee shop, with a pad and pen and just think about his business, write and draw. And I suggested he repeat the process every month around the same time. I hope he does it.

I wrote a post last year on why you must step back from your business. If you struggle, like this business owner, then set a day each month in your diary to think about your business, how it’s progressing against your plan and what you need to do to stay on course.

Go away from any interruptions and don’t let anyone take that day from you. Your business will be so much better for it.Contact me if you want help to develop the right strategies, stay on course and lead from the front.

Do you get into work and sometimes think, “What am I doing today?” What about the people who report into you, do they ask the same question? What is the impact on you of them not being sure? And what is the impact on them of you not being sure?

On a day-to-day basis the impact may not be noticeable, but accumulate this over time and you may find milestones and targets looming that you’re not sure you can meet.

What you do today will impact what you achieve this week, which will impact what you achieve this month, this quarter and so on. Everything is connected…everything has to be connected for your annual goals to be met.

To be certain that you will achieve your goals there must be a connection to your daily activity and therefore you must be in control of your activity and your people in control of their activity.

You should know what milestones you need to hit and how that breaks down into monthly then weekly and finally daily activities.

Without certainty and control you can only hope that you’ll achieve your goals but you will have no real idea if what you’re doing ensures you will. You’ll be travelling blind.

Next week the largest annual trade show of embedded hardware and software will be held in Nuremberg. Component manufacturers and distributors, software tools and OS vendors, design houses and more, from all over the world, will be exhibiting at Embedded World.

The show is massive and demands a hefty percentage of any marketing budget. For the corporations especially, the position and the size of the stand are important, walls of compelling images and messages must be created, trees of collateral printed and handed out, products displayed, competitions run, mini seminar sessions presented and just in case, scantily clad or painted models hired, all to attract visitors and keep them on the stands long enough to see if they are a genuine prospect.

That all sounds expensive, but then there are the people needed to man the stands and CEOs and Directors to attend pre-arranged meetings with top customers and strategic partners. And all flown in and put in hotels for three or four nights. There are also the hours of preparation leading up to the event.

A trade show like Embedded World is undoubtedly an important event to show the latest products but also to hold many important meetings over the course of three days that would normally take far longer and much more travelling to achieve. The return from these meetings should be easy to measure.

But the return in general for the stand, the preparation, the people on stand duty, the cost of keeping them there and the cost to the business of their absence is much harder to measure and many companies don’t even bother. Larger companies will argue that they have to be there because their competitors are, but all companies, no matter their size, should aim to get the biggest possible return for the cost and effort and impact on the business that attending these shows has.

Here are 10 top tips for getting the most out of your trade show…

Have a coherent overall strategy – Plan in advance what you and your teams need to achieve and how you will achieve it. Go through the strategic planning process so you set the right goals, means for achieving them and the systems for monitoring and reviewing the results.

Have a strong marketing strategy – Match your value propositions to your ideal prospects and promote the forthcoming event to them. Don’t simply do a scattergun approach and tell the world you’re going to be at the event. Know who you want visiting your stand and create targeted messages to attract them.

Have compelling messages – Scantily clad models are all very well but visitors need to know why they should visit your stand. Some visitors will know that they’re interested in your processor or operating system and make a bee-line for you but others won’t. They won’t necessarily know what the best solution is for them and your messages could make the difference between a design win and losing an opportunity to a competitor.

Identify your ideal prospects – This links to tip 2; to set the right messages you need to know exactly who you want to attract and speak to. Who are these prospects, what are they likely to be interested in and what can you show that will get them to your stand and keep them there long enough to know if there is an opportunity?

Prepare for stand duty – Make sure those on “stand duty” know who they ideally want to attract and what they are going to discuss. Make sure they are comfortable in initiating these conversations and getting to a result as soon as possible without seeming to rush or pressure the visitor. For large companies it is worth having a front-line of people who can ask enough questions to filter those visitors with a potential opportunity and a need versus those just data gathering. Still take their details to follow up but don’t waste the time of your managers and engineers on the stand.

Have an effective system – As well-as getting the basic visitor information and the key points from conversations make sure you have an effective central system that you can use over the weeks and months to follow-up and measure the return from each visitor and from the show as a whole.

Review the results at the end of each day – Having set daily goals, make sure the results of the day are collated. Were targets for the number of visitors, number of prospects, opportunities identified, deals closed and so on met? If targets are being missed discuss with the relevant members of the team what could be improved the next day.

Have a team meeting where each person on stand duty presents who the top visitors they spoke to were and what their follow-up actions are. Make sure that this information is centrally collated so business cards and forms aren’t lost or conversations forgotten. Waiting until you’re all back in the office is a bit late and a missed opportunity to get the most from the show.

Get feedback – get your visitors to give you feedback. You don’t want them filling in reams but need to understand why they came to the stand (for example; was it a pre-show message that resonated, they already knew they were going to come or they just stumbled upon you), if found what they were looking, if their questions were answered and what if anything would have made the experience a better one. (Are we back to the models?)

Trade show review – Review the show overall against important metrics. Did you hit your goals? What worked well and what didn’t? Did you get the foot fall you were after? Was the location right? Were your value propositions understood? What attracted visitors? What put them off? Did you have enough people? Did you attract enough ideal prospects? How many were converted to design wins? What could you have done better? What did the press say about you? And so.

Have a long term view – You’ll have a number of visitors who on the surface aren’t a prospect with potential business. But after the show, do check out the companies they work for, the applications they develop and markets they play in. They visited your stand for a reason and might well be a potential prospect that needs nurturing over a longer period.

Get the most out of the trade shows you exhibit at. Always have a strategy in place well in advance, set goals, get your messages right for ideal prospects, monitor progress, review findings and get the best return you can.

If you need help preparing a strategy that gives you the best return for your trade show exhibit then give contact me to discuss how I can help.

Your Business Foundation

My name is Christopher Briggs, the author of the best selling book "Your Business Foundation".
I help business owners build their business on a strong foundation that gives them the certainty and control they need to achieve their aims.

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